Stay on target

Blazing Chrome doesn’t hide what it is: A love letter to Contra. The game is essentially a spiritual sequel to the classic Contra III: The Alien Wars. You can see this as a positive or a negative. If you love classic side-scrolling shoot ‘em ups then you’ll appreciate a title that pays homage to the genre. Conversely, if you’ve played these games to death back in the day, you may not desire to retread old ground. No matter one’s opinion on retro-style titles, it is difficult to deny Blazing Chrome captures the spirit of the games it emulates. And to me, it’s also really freakin’ cool.

In true ’90s fashion, Blazing Chrome takes place in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by killer robots. You play as one of two heroes who blast their way through a gauntlet of enemy-infested levels. Like Contra, you’ll find power-ups that give your weapons different attributes. Shock beams, flame throwers, and grenade launchers do a nice job of dispersing the murderous hordes. Some power-ups give you shields, which come in handy given Blazing Chrome’s high difficulty. This is a title that puts your reflexes to the test, especially if you play on Hardcore difficulty.

Blazing Chrome is challenging yet merciful. Each level has checkpoints. If you run out of lives and continues, you’ll return to the previous checkpoint. Even if you die on a boss, you’ll only have to redo the section directly before it. This is perfect for players who may love old-school games but don’t have the patience to restart entire levels every time they die. But if you want a pure retro experience, you can always play on Hardcore where you only get 3 lives and have to restart from the beginning when you run out.

From the start, you can select one of four stages. Each one presents its own challenges. Some focus on platforming while others on environmental hazards. The most unique stage has you riding across the land on a hoverbike. Think of the speeder bike section of Battletoads, only far more forgiving. You unlock two extra levels upon completing the four main ones. These final stages provide the biggest challenges and end Blazing Chrome in glorious fashion.

Completing the game also unlocks two characters. Unlike the two main characters, these warriors use melee weapons exclusively and have the ability to air-dash. Their method of attack radically changes how you play Blazing Chrome. It feels a lot like another classic ‘90s game: Strider. Melee weapons force you to confront enemies directly. This is dangerous considering how quickly they can kill you. With that said, the challenge of using these two characters is enticing and adds variety to combat.

Besides the new characters, you unlock mirror mode after completing the campaign. As the name suggests, you play a mirror version of each level. This is perfect for those who memorized the main levels and want to squeeze a little more out of the game.

Blazing Chrome’s presentation is as retro as its gameplay. The graphics, music, and sound effects evoke the 16-bit era. Well, almost. Despite the pixelated nature of the graphics, they are far more advanced than anything the Super Nintendo could produce. But they look retro enough to fool anyone into thinking this is a long-lost SNES game. A number of filter options make the graphics look more era-appropriate. Blazing Chrome’s default graphical setting is great, but the CRT filters make it feel like you’re playing it on an arcade or TV screen. You can even smooth out the graphics if you desire. I’m on the side of the fence that prefers CRT filters in pixel games so I appreciated this option.

Games like Blazing Chrome and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night prove classic gameplay holds up in the modern era. Developer JoyMasher did a masterful job of capturing the spirit of games like Contra, Metal Slug, Gunstar Heroes, and even Strider. It doesn’t tread new ground, and that’s fine. It does exactly what it set out to do. If the recently released Contra Anniversary Collection has you itching for more run-and-gun goodness, Blazing Chrome is worth a try.